Letter: A Moderate in Name Only

It seems David Sunderland, the new chairman of the Vermont Republican Party, is more like the national Republicans than he wants us to believe. His response to Vermont voters’ repeated rejection of the Republican Party agenda is: Don’t change the policy — change the strategy. He apparently believes the party can make its policies more palatable to Vermonters by just expressing them differently — “massaging the message.” He offers a “new” direction for his party that is nothing more than the same old right-wing, backward-looking agenda wrapped in a moderate package.

A review of Sunderland’s voting record as a state legislator shows clearly that he is not the moderate he purports to be. He:

∎ Opposed a bill to increase transparency in drug pricing and information.

∎ Sponsored parent-notification bills in every session he served.

∎ Opposed campaign-finance reform.

∎ Voted to seal all records of internal police investigations.

∎ Voted against having a student representative on school boards.

∎ Voted against expanded pre-school education.

∎ Voted against raising the minimum wage.

∎ Voted to set up a private school voucher system, which would have undermined the public school system.

Many of these bills he voted against were voted into law under Gov. Jim Douglas, a fellow Republican.

These are some of the highlights of Sunderland’s career as a state legislator.